A bogus refugee who raped and murdered the daughter of a top EU official broke down and asked for forgiveness at his trial in Germany today.

Self-pitying Hussein Khavari was linked to the murder of Maria Ladenburger through his DNA but remained silent after his arrest last year.

On Monday that changed as he wept in the Freiburg District Court as he recalled how he smoked hashish the night he ambushed 19-year-old Maria, raped her and drowned her in the knee-deep water of a nearby river.

He said he took her to the water to wash her blood from his body and clothes and claimed the incident had destroyed his life.

Afghan migrant Hussein Khavari wept in the Freiburg District Court as he recalled how he murdered Maria Ladenburger while he was drunk last October

He said the night of the killing he was so drunk he was ejected from a bar and left alone by his friends in town.

He claims he accidentally came across Maria who shouted out as she fell from her bicycle.

He said he pressed her mouth shut then choked her with a scarf and put her unconscious into the water.

'When I saw how pretty she was, I wanted to have sex with her,' he said, but claims he was too drunk.

He broke down in court and added: 'I want to apologize to the family of Maria'.

Reading from a statement he went on: 'I beg your pardon. I want to apologise to the family of Maria. I wish I could undo it.

'What I have done, I am sad for from the bottom of my heart '.

He says he dreams of what he did every day as he wiped tears from his face.

'I live with the agony of what I did and this torment destroys my life,' he added.

He claims he dragged her into the river 'because I wanted to wash her blood from me'.

Police stand in front of the court in Freiburg ahead of a case that fueled a nationwide debate about the country's migration policy

Prosecutors dispute his account of the murder and say he planned it beforehand.

Hussain, who was 19 at the time of the murder in October last year, ended a life rich in potential and polarised a nation struggling to adapt to over a million refugees in its midst.

It emerged after his arrest that he had been arrested and sentenced to ten years for attempted murder in Corfu in 2013 before coming to Germany seeking refuge in 2015.

It remains unclear why Greece let him out of jail so quickly.

German authorities knew nothing of his past and so let him into the country as a registered asylum seeker.

Ironically his victim, whose father is a senior legal adviser to the European Commission in Brussels, worked in her spare time in the ancient university city of Freiburg helping out migrants in various shelters and homes.

The killing sparked frenzied new waves of hatred and fear of refugees.

Even the leader of the country's police union said her death would have been prevented had the open door asylum-seeker policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel been less lax than it is.

The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was to piggyback on the killer's arrest to highlight what it says are the dangers of unregulated immigration. It calls Maria a 'victim of Merkel's welcome culture.'

Khavari was born in Ghazni in Afghanistan and came to Germany as an illegal unaccompanied minor in November 2015. In numerous posts on the Internet he liked to present himself in the guise of a gangsta rapper: hair slicked back with gel, jogging pants and training shoes.

On Facebook, before the killing of Maria on October 16, he wore his hair long but it was cut back after the crime. A single strand of it was found at the crime scene but he left other traces of his DNA behind on a scarf.

Another disturbing photo he posted on his Facebook page in June shows a wolfman clutching a young maiden in his arms.

Maria's body was found in the Dreisam River less than one mile from the student accommodation where she lived. Khavari stayed free for seven weeks before police arrested him.

He was linked through his DNA to medical student Maria (pictured), who volunteered at various shelters that house migrants in her spare time in the university city of Freiburg

Last week the court heard how Khavariattacked Maria to satisfy his 'sexual urges' before leaving her unconscious in a river to drown, a court heard.

Pictures emerged on Tuesday of Khavari shackled in chains arriving at a district court in the university city for the high profile case, that has shocked the country and reignited tensions over its liberal asylum policy.

Prosecutors accuse him of 'maliciously' attacking the young woman 'to satisfy his sexual urges' before leaving the unconscious victim to drown.

The defendant surprised the Freiburg court today by stating that he wanted to speak at his trial, which opened with people queuing to enter the courtroom.

'I want to testify,' he told the judges, reversing an earlier stance to stay silent.

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Sixteen days of hearings have been scheduled for the trial, with a verdict expected in December at the earliest.

Chief prosecutor Ekkart Berger said at the start of the trial of Hussein Khabarovsk: 'What exactly happened that night, the investigators were able to reconstruct in detail. We assume that he had a killing intention from the beginning.

'At about 3am or a few minutes earlier, the defendant Hussein attacked Maria. He grabbed the handlebars of the bicycle and brought her to a halt.'

Khavari's trial has started in Freiburg last week, where he was seen in handcuffs being led in to court (pictured)

The defendant Hussein Khavari is brought back into the court room wearing shackles after a break during his trial in Freiburg

Hussein claims to be Afghani but the court heard that there is evidence he is Iraqi. And his claim to be 17 at the time of the offence is disputed with a specialist saying he is at least 22.

According to Bild newspaper, during a morning session of hearings in which press and public were excluded he claimed to be 19.

He said he claimed to be 16 upon his arrival in Germany in 2015 'because the situation is better here for under age migrants.' The court must decide if he is to be tried as a juvenile or an adult.

A murder conviction as a juvenile would mean a maximum ten year jail term, as an adult a possible life sentence.

Maria's father is a senior legal adviser to the European Commission in Brussels.

The killing sparked frenzied new waves of hatred and fear of refugees. The boss of the country's police union said her death would have been prevented had the open door asylum-seeker policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel been less lax.

The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was to piggyback on the killer's arrest to highlight what it says are the dangers of unregulated immigration. It calls Maria a 'victim of Merkel's welcome culture.'

Maria's body was found in the Dreisam River less than one mile from the student accommodation where she lived.

Khavari claimed to have been born in Afghanistan and came to Germany as an illegal unaccompanied minor in November 2015.

In numerous social media posts he liked to present himself with hair slicked back with gel, jogging pants and training shoes.

On Facebook, before the killing of Maria on October 16, he wore his hair long but it was cut back after the crime.

A single strand of it was found at the crime scene but he left other traces of his DNA behind too.

Another disturbing photo he posted on his Facebook page shows a wolfman clutching a young maiden in his arms.

He said he was 17 at the time but he is thought to be 22. He has not spoken to police since his arrest.

After his arrest it emerged that he was let out of jail early in Greece where he was sentenced to ten years for trying to kill a young woman.

Stern magazine reported that Khavari had thrown a 20-year-old student off a cliff on Corfu, Greece, in May 2013.

The woman was severely injured but 'miraculously' survived and was able to identify her attacker.